More Popular Dead than Alive
by The Mother Rose
Summary: Naruto is seventeen but all has not gone as the Sandaime would have wished for him since Sasuke's betrayal. Character Death


**Disclaimer: Ok since if you have read any of my other work you know full well I am not Japanese than it should come as no surprise that I in fact do not own a cartoon or comic book about a kid raised there (even if he does look European). Therefore I do not own Naruto or anything else in that universe. **

**Author Note: Be nice in your reviews but point out my mistakes or overlooks and I'll do my best to fix them. Don't forget to catch my red threads of thought. They float everywhere when I write.**

More Popular Dead than Alive

A Naruto Story

Naruto sat on the bed in his dingy gray apartment. He had cleaned the place before sunrise and now had nothing else to do. According to the decree passed by the council to keep him from doing all the "D rank" missions in the village he was only allowed to do two missions per day of the week. That meant no more than twelve missions per week since all ninja in town were given one day off per week. And since he was effectively without a team now he couldn't do any mission above a D. Not only did he not have a team but he had no teacher either. Jiraiya, the Master Pervert that he was, said he had nothing more to teach him and Kakashi, the aspiring pervert that he was, had gone back to his work with the Anbu corp after Sasuke had left the team.

Naruto hadn't wanted to believe the whispers he'd heard while he was on that team. The whispers that said he was only training them for the one but Kakashi had proven the truth himself. He had left his other students in the dust as soon as Sakura had said she would be training with Tsunade now. Disbelieving Naruto had asked the same question he'd always asked. Kakashi had just looked at him and turned and walked off without a word. He could still see the look in the jounin's eye as he did so. Since that day he had tried on a few occasions to get together with his old team but Sakura was far too busy learning medicine and training to be the next Sannin and Kakashi had never even bothered to respond to him.

Tsunade- there had been a time when even in his mind he'd called her Baachan but that day had long since fled away as Shizune convinced him he was a bother to her. She, Tsunade, said she had tried to get him a new team, and he believed she really had tried, but no one would take him on so he was left alone. She had tried to get him a teacher but everyone she'd assigned would find a way to get out of showing up. After awhile Naruto had realized the truth. No one wanted anything to do with him because he was their own personal demon. The village pariah no one wanted to acknowledge and almost everyone wanted dead. So he'd spent a few months working alone and being laughed at by the others. Then one day he realized there wasn't any point to it anymore. You didn't need better fighting abilities to pull weeds or sort garbage. His dreams had died that day when he realized he'd never again leave the village of his birth until his death.

Well soon they'd get their wish. He could feel the last of demon chakra swirling into his coils even as he sat there twirling his kunai. He'd promised Kyuubi to wait until it was almost their end and then to give them both the choice of how to end it all. And that's what he was doing. His apartment held the mementos he had left to each person who had ever shown they cared and, when it was done, a special flare would tell of the deed. Two of his special people would spring into action then - one to take care of his remains before they could be desecrated and another to gather and deliver the mementos. Knowing his friends the rest of them would come also since only his true friends, those who truly knew him, would notice the special flare he'd rigged. Indeed his true friends wouldn't not be able to notice it. He really didn't want any more grief passed onto him as the carrier of the Kyuubi.

The day passed slowly but finally the sun was setting and Naruto went inside his own head to visit his only true companion. _"Kyuubi. You know it's time. How do you wish us to go?" _He sat in front of the big gates waiting for the Fox to wake-up enough to answer him. Kyuubi had spent the day sleeping so that he would have enough energy to stay awake later when the Kit needed him to make sure nothing interferred with their plan.

Opening tired eyes the great fox looked on his vessel. He'd done so much harm to this boy and yet through it all the boy had never once blamed him for the disgrace his life had been. Now when he knew his time was almost over he wished there was a way to repay the boy but he knew there wasn't. Demons weren't gods after all. **"I'm sorry Kit. Your life has been hell because I existed to be pulled into this realm."**

Naruto snorted. _"Told you before Fuzzball. If it hadn't been you they called it would have been someone else. Now the only decision we have to make is how to end it all and set ourselves free. I don't want to just sit around here and wait for the village to figure out you're gone. Sooner or later they will get tired of waiting for me to quit showing up for D rank missions and take things into their own hands again. I don't want to die like that. And I refuse to believe you want to just pass away with a whisper of chakra dispelling on the wind. We both know we are going to die one way or the other. It might as well be on our terms, don't you think?"_

"**Yeah Kit. I do indeed. I really don't relish the thought of those bastards cutting you down again without me there to help you heal."**

"_Ok so how? Have you chosen a method?"_

Kyuubi, being a demon, had gotten Naruto to agree to let him choose the method they would use to pass from this world. Good people, such as the Kit weren't supposed to actively take a role in their own demise unless it was in order to protect another but demons had no such silly rules."**Yeah Kit. A sleeping poison but I'd head to your cave just so no one finds us before we slip away. I promise your chakra has been blocked except for what you might need to reach it. Once there I'll use the little remaining strength to block off the rest and we can both just go to sleep."** The explanation wasn't quite a full one. Kyuubi knew full well that Kit wouldn't understand the whole truth of how this would work. Though the healing ability was always Naruto's own ability, like most things without a consciousness, it healed injuries in the order they were received. Therefore, ever since the Kyuubi had awoken and found his vessel dying in a damn alleyway, he'd taken to directing and reinforcing the chakra flow where it was most needed. All Naruto knew was that he had a kick-butt-and-take-names-later type healing factor.

Naruto nodded and went into his bathroom. He found the drug Kyu had mentioned and then jumped out the window and onto the roof of his building. He saw a few Anbu around but they wouldn't meet his eye and deliberately looked away whenever he came near. He knew even if they saw where he went they would say nothing. Their conscious, plus a healthy fear of both Anko and Ibiki, wouldn't let them betray him but yet they couldn't help but feel he deserved what he was getting also. He made his way swiftly to the cave inside the Yondaime's head never knowing just how appropriate it was that he should choose this particular place to end his existence. After all, his life had begun as a barely conceived idea in his father's head also so why shouldn't it end in the same figurative place?

Once inside he made a comfortable resting place for himself and then waited for the signal from Kyu that he was done sealing off the pesky chakra that would keep him lingering in a state somewhere locked between dead and alive. His own bloodline had provided him with an insane amount of chakra and with a halfway decent healing ability of his own. The drawback of his healing was it used chakra and was therefore why Kyuubi was sealing the pesky stuff away. Naruto had no further use of chakra now that he was safe inside the cave where it would all end. Only as he felt his eyes closing and his breathing settling in his chest would the special flare be ignited. The flare would go off only when there were absolutely no lifesigns within the cave.

"**Ready now, Kit. Let's go home. Kami is waiting for us, I'm sure."**

"_Ok Kyuubi. It was nice to have had the time to get to know the real Kyuubi. Too bad humans didn't show you the best of my kind. For that, I am sorry."_ Naruto bowed low in front of the cave before reaching out to rip away the seal. Then he opened the cage and the once great fox came out. Together they used the last of Naruto's chakra to create a pleasant environment in which to die and lay down side by side. Naruto took the powder and washed it down with his own saliva not wanting to risk diluting it with water.

As they lay there together waiting for sleep Naruto pondered, _"Kyuubi? Do you think anyone will really miss me?"_

"**Your true friends will Kit. Unfortunately there just weren't enough of them. Four whole people out of the entire universe who actually bothered to look beyond the mask and see the underneath of the underneath. But those four will miss you terribly."**

Naruto was quiet for a minute before he asked, _" Do you think HE ever got what he wanted? What HE left me behind for?"_ No explanation was necessary for who the HE was. There was only ever one person Naruto had ever truly felt close enough around to ever be completely himself with. With everyone else the boy had learned to watch always for an assignation attempt. Quietly he whispered, _"I wish we could let HIM know we're going also but I doubt HE'D care."_

"**No Kit. I don't. The boy was up to be my container but he was rejected. His chakra wasn't expansive enough to handle the seal and a lesser seal wouldn't have held me. If he didn't have enough chakra to contain me there is no way he has succeeded in killing him. That one is truly strong."** Kyuubi wisely chose not to answer the second query. He knew the chances of that boy retaining enough of his own identity to care about something other than his ultimate goal were next to nil. The Snake would have already wiped everything else out of the boy by now.

"_How do you know that?!"_

"**The night of the attack I was in a rage and the seal did cause me to pass out but before I did I heard the people talking. At the time I had no idea who they were but it turns out they were that Master Pervert you called a sensei and HIS father as well as her father. The two Father's wanted to put you to death right away but that Old Hermit told them the seal would more than likely break and re-release me into the world again. They bargained they could use either of their children as the vessel should I happen to be released, and he laughed at them both. Told both of them that not only could he not replicate the seal Yondaime used on me but their precious offspring weren't good enough to contain a demon of my stature. Not only was the girl too old already but the other boy had less chakra than a squirrel and if there was one thing the seal that was holding me required, other than another free soul for the Shinigami, it was massive chakra that swirled through the chakra coils of the container without outside help. If I could have I would have laughed out loud at those two pompous fools being told there was something their precious little blue bloods weren't good enough for. That Master Pervert of yours has as little respect for otheres as you do. By the way, he was right about that. Any less chakra than you have would have allowed me to break free the first time I got angry after I woke up."**

"_And you got angry pretty often if my nightmares were any indication."_ Naruto shivered in recollection. It had taken awhile before Kyuubi quit rending the flesh of his attackers every night in his sleep. For a short time there Naruto had wondered if he would end up going crazy from lack of sleep. When he'd met Gaara he saw it had been a real possibility and that had scared him into helping the sand genin more than anything else. He simply couldn't stand to see another human being suffer that way.

"**Yeah, Kit. I did. Sorry bout that."**

"_No problem. Having you getting angry on my behalf allowed me to pretend it was happening to someone else. I don't think I'd have made it this long without you taking it all away."_

"**Sure you would have Kit. Because without me, you'd have had a normal life with at least your father to show you love."**

"_I wonder if HE knows what HE did to my life? I wonder if HE'D care if HE did know? Somehow I don't think HE would. Somehow I think HE will only care when HIS brother dies by HIS hand even if that never happens."_

Kyuubi was struggling to stay awake. He didn't want to fall asleep until he knew the boy had passed beyond the point of return. He didn't trust anyone in this friggin' village after all the crap they'd put the Kit through. But he had to admit these last five years had been beyond hell for the boy. Kit had trained and worked hard all his life believing that when he became a ninja he would have something of value to trade the village in exchange for his life. But in the last few years, since the team had broken apart due to selfish behavior, the Kit had been able to hold onto nothing worth having. D rank missions done solo and alone. No visitors beyond the teacher, girl and the Shogi player. Even the old fart in the green robe was too busy to have time for the boy and all his old friends had moved on. Some of them laughed at him when they did see him calling him Dobe and Loser as if it was his fault he was still a genin. But his real friends knew it wasn't his doing. They knew why his rank had been frozen and they knew there was nothing else for him. His line would die with him tonight but in many ways the Yondaime had sealed that line seventeen years earlier by taking Naruto onto the battlefield with him. Kyuubi sighed and allowed his thoughts to wander. He thought about all the people who'd once tried to convince Naruto they were his friends and would always stand by him. Where were they now, he wondered, and what would they be doing after the sun rose if he and the Kit weren't going away tonight?

Well, the pink-haired girl would be working her shift at the hospital while the blond girl would be out trying to get the others on her team to do something. She wouldn't care what it was so long as it wasn't watching the chubby one eat or watching the stars come out. Not that either girl had ever really given a twit about the Kit. Both would probably spend the next day doing the same exact thing they were doing tonight. Both of them seemed to have forgotten Kit fast enough once he was taken out of the ninja team rotations though the Kit had made a point of congratulating each girl on each promotion they'd received. Neither had even once said thank-you to him. Both had taken it as their due.

The white eyed kids were either out on a mission or busy training though the girl did have more responsibilities now that the Kit had worked out a modified seal for the family. The new seal prevented the eyes the clan prided themselves on from ever being stolen while it at the same time prevented anyone from ever being able to use it to torture or kill them. She planned to have the seal placed on every member of the household regardless of their status as main or branch and in that manner restore equality to the family. It was really an ingenious idea and her cousin planned to help her do it. Both the white eyed children already had the modified seal as did Hiashi. All three covered their seals with their headbands to prevent the knowledge from getting out too soon.

The Green Boy had moved on to doing special class missions where those without measurable chakra were needed for infiltration. He was hardly ever in the village anymore and the few times he had been it was only for a couple of hours. The girl that had been on their team had married the white eyed boy and now only had time for helping her father in the weapon shop or chasing their twins around.

The Bug Boy had married and was still doing missions for the Leaf. Though he was never openly rude to the Kit when he saw him he never just dropped by for a visit either. He never went out of his way to help the Kit or show any kindness to him. And the Dog Boy was the worst next to that girl who'd shared a team with Kit. Dog Boy was the only one to consistently make fun of Kit whenever he saw him heading out on a mission or worst yet doing such a low level mission. And he seemed to look for the times when Naruto would be working for his supper. His skin was too thick to notice the glares from his female teammate and he always managed to convince himself that the reason for her tears when he would laugh at Naruto was because Naruto had hurt her. So Naruto learned to vanish whenever he picked up the scent of the Dog Boy in his neighborhood.

The kit was drifting off now. Soon it would be time to shut down his mind and travel with the Kit to a better realm. Idly he wondered how the boy would react when he awoke in the new place. And in Kyuubi's mind there was absolutely no doubt that Kit would go on towards whatever reward the truly just got for living a life of sacrifice. Surely very few could ever say they had sacrificed more than Naruto had.

Kyuubi watched as Naruto's finger slipped from the button that ignited the flare. He saw the cord burning that let him know it was working and settled in to listen to the boy's breathing settle. The breaths started coming slower and slower and slower. Each breath took longer to arrive than the last until finally Kyuubi closed his eyes knowing that even if something went wrong, no one would be able to pull the Kit back now. No matter what happened the Kit was safe. No more pain. No more torture. No more humiliation. No more suffering. Freedom was just a heartbeat away and both of them wanted it badly.

"**Good-bye Kit. My good Kit,"** he whispered to the wind. He thought he heard an answer floating back to him. _"Good-bye Kyuubi. I'm going home now."_

Once every indication of life was gone from the cave the flare went off. Only those who knew of it felt the pulsewave and immediately knew what it was all about.

Shikamaru bolted upright in his bed with his breath caught in his chest. Tears streaming unknowingly from his eyes he stumbled blindly from his room and out the front door. He followed the wave to the Yondaime's head. There he found both Hinata and Iruka waiting for him. The three of them used shaky hands to wipe away their tears and climbed the stairs that led up the side of the monument. Once there they followed Naruto's directions and made their way inside the cave. They found him looking totally at peace and very happy. Hinata took his picture while Iruka set up the jutsu to take care of his remains. Shikamaru just stood by bearing witness to the small ceremony. Just as they were about to finish Gaara came in and stood at Shikamaru and Hinata's side, though he also took a picture for Temari and Kankuro. Together the four friends burned the remains of their greatest friend and hero. When he was nothing but ashes, Gaara gathered them up and sealed them away inside his robes to take back to Suna. No one would dare pilfer them there and the ashes could be used as a way to verify once and for all that the Nine-tails was dead.

Then the four friends went back to Naruto's place and cleaned it out. They took everything they found and read who it was for before splitting the load up for quickest delivery. They parted to deliver their parcels and then vanished to a spot Naruto had shown them years earlier. There they stayed talking over their memories of their friend and all that he had done for them during their lives. They talked about how much they were going to miss him and how hard it would be not to punch the idiots in the face whenever unkind things were said. And unkind things would be said. Of that none of them had any doubt but Naruto had made them promise to let the hate die with him and so they would try. None of them held the illusion that they were anywhere near his class when it came to forgiving and forgetting but for him they would try.

That morning most people stumbled from their beds and followed their usual routine doing the same ol' things they normally did. For them there was nothing new or different about the morning as they left their homes for the business of living.

For others though a feeling that lingered and made them feel sad was their first clue that things were different this morning. Something in the air gave them the chills and made them feel like curling up with a box full of Kleenex. But they shrugged it off and got ready to live their normal day. There was work to be done, missions to fill, quotas to meet, people to protect and teach. But, as each one stepped outside his or her front door, they found an un-preposing package sitting humbly waiting for them. Each one felt compelled to open said package right away and went back inside their residence to take care of their mystery gift.

Soon screams and cries were echoing around the village as people went on a run towards the lowest end of the social ladder in the village. Tsunade didn't stop for anyone as she burst through the door of her little brothers apartment. The place was bare. Nothing anywhere. No furniture of any kind. No clothes. No pictures. No scrolls. No nothing. The whole place had the look of somewhere no one had ever been before. Turning to Shizune with a wild look in her eyes, she screamed, "Where is he? Where's my otouto?"

No one knew what to say. Truth was no one had watched where he went when he'd left this place yesterday evening. The Jounins and other guards around Tsunade-sama all felt it was the least they owed the boy who'd tried so blasted hard to become one of them. Tears poured like rain down Tsunade's face and her grief was so extreme her genjutsu started to flicker. Her grief was making her voice gravelly and hard to understand but no one doubted it's sincerity. Or her desperation to find Naruto. She had to know he was really safe. He just had to be but even as she begged for people to tell her he was she knew from the present he'd left her he wasn't ever going to come around to see her again. Naruto had returned her necklace and she knew the only way he'd ever do that was if he knew beyond any doubt he was going where she couldn't follow. Rage and grief tore her throat raw as she screamed out, "NARUTO!!" and collapsed to her knees.

Shizune helped her mentor to stand up again. Quickly Shizune sent teams searching for Naruto, hoping against hope that this was all just a stupid cruel prank done to gain some attention. She knew however, as she guided her friend and mentor back home, that it wasn't. His place was too empty for it to have been a joke. He was gone. Tears stung her eyes also as she led the way back home. She could have made sure that both she and Tsunade-sama had time for him but the last few times he'd shown up she'd begged him to only stay for an assignment and then leave so Tsunade-sama could get some work done. Each time she'd seen the joy go out in his eyes before he'd nodded and done just as she'd asked. She'd thought he was finally growing up but now she could see the truth. She hadn't wanted _her_ friend distracted but Tsunade-sama would have welcomed Naruto with open arms anytime the boy had wanted to be near her. Naruto had filled a hole in Tsunade-sama that no matter what she did she'd never be able to fill. In Naruto, Tsunade-sama had a reason to keeping living for the next generation. He could have helped her with that never-ending mountain of paperwork also but it had never occurred to Shizune to let him. As soon as she got Tsunade-sama home she tucked her back into bed with a sleep aide and let her cry herself off to dreamland. Then she went out in the hall and broke down herself finally admitting why there had been no present for herself for all that Naruto had always called her Neechan.

Being one with the dogs as his clan was Kiba was an early riser. He made it to Naruto's place next, shock being his dominant emotion. Never would he have believed the loud-mouthed ninja of their academy and genin days would disappear from the earth so quietly. When he saw the empty state of the apartment he too was convinced the joker was hiding somewhere laughing at all of them for reacting like fools. He grew angry and put his nose to use. But it was no good. Neither his nose nor Akamaru's were able to pick up any kind of a scent in this confusing array before Naruto's door. His mind was too dense to think about why Naruto wouldn't wish to live or why he might be partly to blame. It would take a major explosion on Hinata's part to get him to stop whining about Naruto's disappearance and how he was gonna pound him whenever he finally showed up again. A month of the silent treatment from her after the explosion got the packish brute into a more reasonable frame of mind.

Next to show was Kakashi and Jiraiya. Both perverts stood in silence before the door before quietly pulling it closed and moving off. Neither needed to look any farther than the empty cabinets in the kitchen to know the message they'd received was true. Naruto didn't live here anymore.

Jiraiya would quietly go hide himself away for a month . . . or two before he once again showed up smiling and giggling at the girls. He'd spend that month reliving every single memory he had of the boy and comparing them with things he'd been through with the father. In the end he'd cry for what he'd never once appreciated. What he'd only wished would go away and leave him to his blasted research. Well now the boy had gone away. He'd gone as far away as it was possible to go. He'd never again show up and ruin a good afternoon of peeping by telling the girls he was there. Hell, he'd even made it easier. A brand new telescope lay waiting in it's factory wrappings for his first foray to the hotsprings but somehow he just couldn't work up the energy to go use it. The Gaki wouldn't interrupt and somehow just knowing that took some of the sunshine out of the hobby.

Kakashi would go home and within three days he would burn every Icha Icha memento he owned. The little orange books and posters on the walls brought tears every time he saw them as each time the image would be overlaid with a screaming blond-haired, blue-eyed child full of righteous indignation. Every time, he would again relive how far he had failed his team and what a terrible ninja he really was that he'd never even noticed the boy in the last year. And yet Naruto wasn't really that boy anymore. From the day he'd found him at the Valley of the End and seen the hole in his shoulder, he'd known what had happened. He'd known his favorite student had deliberately tried to kill his other student. It was guilt that had him running away from the boy. Guilt that had kept him away and truly he'd thought the boy had given up on the dream of being a ninja and gone into civilian work. The note Naruto had left for him had told him otherwise. He'd been told there was no other life for a demon vessel but that which their village will allow them to have. The note told him in no uncertain terms what had happened to Naruto's dreams and why. Though the boy had laid no blame on anyone, it was clear that Kakashi was responsible. At least it was clear to Kakashi. Naruto called himself selfish but admitted a terrible fear of living without the Kyuubi once it had been fully absorbed. He begged not to be blamed for leaving this way but knew he probably would be. After all, one isn't supposed to get to choose the time of your own death. For the rest of his days Kakashi would blame himself for having failed Naruto the most. He'd known he was the boy's last chance. Him and Jiraiya. Together they could have allowed the boy to propel himself so high the council could never have reigned him in but they hadn't. They'd run away. They'd left him to pick up the pieces alone. Again.

Chouji went without food for a week except for what he absolutely had to have to stay alive while Ino forgot to take care of herself. She forgot about tending to her make-up and hair and didn't give a rat's tail about her clothes. The two found each other that morning and went to look for their other friend but Shikamaru was making himself scarce. He didn't want to be found by anyone right now knowing full well that he would go off on anyone foolish enough to go off on Naruto for the end he chose. Shikamaru knew none of their friends had known just how trapped Naruto really was let alone how bad his life had become but that didn't mean he wouldn't sound off on the first one foolish enough to say something typically stupid. Ino and Chouji's wandering route eventually brought them to the poor sector of the village and it was only because Ino had been there once that they even knew they were in the neighborhood he'd once lived in. Neither of them doubted he was really gone. Both knew he'd cared too much for those he considered to be worthy people and his friends to play this kind of a prank on them. Both had also heard Tsunade-sama screaming that morning. So when they couldn't find Shika the two went to a streambed they knew Naruto had liked and sat watching the water and remembering another friend lost to the sands of time.

Neji and Shino both accepted their farewells with hidden pain that was quickly pushed aside only to be shown the light of day when they were totally alone and none could ever say they'd ever seen it, though Neji did tell Tenten Naruto was gone. Other than an initial gasp no one would have ever known there was anything untoward about the package both had found addressed to them that morning.

Neji had locked himself away in his office as soon as he could and spent several hours in there reading his friends good-bye over yet again. He had to say he understood the reasons why Naruto-san had chosen his own end and truly if he'd really been half the prisoner he'd imagined himself to be all those years ago - half the prisoner Naruto-san truly was- he would have done the same thing. Only he wouldn't have lasted nearly as long as seventeen years. Naruto-san's letter had directed him to help Hinata-sama, explaining that she would be weak until she got passed him. She, Neji learned, even with her very busy schedule had still managed to make time for her personal hero and best friend while he, Neji, had allowed Tenten-chan and Hiashi-sama to convince him he had no time for the Deadlast of a different year. But Neji knew also, beyond any shadow of a doubt that only when the day came that someone finally laid Hinata-sama in her tomb, would she ever truly get over Naruto-san's passing. She would spend the rest of her days grieving for her one true love even though she'd always known she wouldn't be allowed to have him as her mate. He never even noticed the honorific he'd placed at the end of Naruto's name in his thoughts.

Shino had done much the same thing but his bugs knew what was going on and how much stock humans put in the value of the individual life and so they took matters into their own antenna. So when they saw their host getting lost in the rituals of how to mourn a friend without actually doing any mourning, they threw a hissy fit. Well, a buzzing to beat the band fit anyway. They flew out of his body and covered his books with images formed of themselves of Naruto at his quirkiest. Then they formed the pictures of the genin as they'd seen him last. The contrast was clear and undeniable and a tear finally fell from the bug ninja's eye as the bugs quickly formed themselves into other images of the blond. They showed Naruto at his happiest, Naruto pretending to be happy, Naruto with the cracks in his mask showing his intelligence, and Naruto without hope or dreams. But the one thing they didn't intend for their images to show was the one thing that brought the tear. They showed his loneliness. In every image Shino could clearly remember how alone Naruto had been even when the crowd was around him. The very fact that the bugs had such a clear image of him in so many different situations made that clearer than anything else ever could have. Most people would only have half as many images from the bugs and a majority of those would be incomplete where someone else would have been deleteed or just left out of the image. It took the bugs hours before they ran through their stock of bug pictures for Shino to look at. Of course every image was an image from an event that Shino had memories of but that thought never occurred to the genius. He just sat there watching the lonliness flicker past the many facial expressions as his tears fell and he sent mental thank-you's to his parents for sparing him Naruto's life.

For Tenten, though she received no special notice or gift, she allowed herself to remember a little boy she had never told anyone about. A bright yellow-haired little ball of sunshine that used to do his best to make all the other kids in the orphanage laugh no matter how badly he was beat up. And he was always beat up. Never once could she ever remember seeing the boy without a bruise, cut, scrap or something swollen in obvious pain. Yet he always smiled. She'd never forgotten that boy though she never let anyone know about him after her Uncle had taken her from the home. She'd put the child away in her mind as a time best not spoken of. But now that he was gone and no one but she could be hurt by those memories she brought them out into the light of day again. Tears fell while her twins napped and after they'd fallen to sleep at night but never if Neji was around. She still didn't want him to know how weak she really was.

The Konohamaru Corp had gotten over their fascination with everything Naruto when his team fell apart and he was blamed for it. They'd been hard to convert at first but as they saw Naruto being punished and not fighting back they'd gradually come around to accepting that maybe he had been more destructive than they'd known. Sakura of course did all she could to reinforce that idea while the Hokage herself did everything she could to off set it. Ebisu backed up Sakura's claim and even the council seemed to agree that Naruto-niisan had ripped apart his team of genins and therefore deserved his lifetime punishment. Over time they saw Naruto disappear into the framework of the village but their own lives were so busy they hardly had time to notice anything anymore. And so his passing went without notice from the trio.

The fourth unofficial member of the corp however was not allowed to persist in her belief that Naruto deserved his fate. Hinata and Neji both set her right anytime she dared say anything negative in front of them and the one and only time she'd dare say something derogatory about the Vessel in front of her father she'd though all her blood had frozen in her limbs. She was so cold just from the look on his face. Never before had she ever really thought white was a cold color but ever since that day whenever she heard someone say something unkind about Naruto she remembered the look of permafrost in Hiashi's eye and knew beyond doubt that white was indeed the coldest color ever.

Lee was out of town and Naruto had given his going away present to Shikamaru to hang onto until he came back to the village for a visit again. Therefore he was the only former acquaintance of Naruto's who did not know he'd left all his cares behind. Well, the only one that could be said to care anymore.

Yes Sakura knew but, other than opening her gift, she showed no feeling whatsoever for his passing. Truth was, when he failed to bring her precious Sasuke-kun back, she'd lost all her faith in him. Not that she'd ever really had much in the first place. She'd never really allowed herself to look beyond what she saw as the glory of the Uchiha survivor to notice Naruto standing there at all and, when he'd failed his promise to her, the borrowed faith she'd placed in him disappeared. Afterwards, when she'd gone to the Hokage to ask for apprenticeship under her, all she could think about was getting Sasuke-kun back while discrediting Naruto. Later when Tsunade had figured out how her action had affected the remnants of the team she tried to make Sakura keep working with Naruto and a new Sensei but Sakura refuse to show up or do missions with them, claiming Naruto would get her killed rather than protect her. Eventually Tsunade had given up, knowing that even if she revoked her status as the student of the Hokage, Sakura would not willingly work with Naruto again.

Sakura's gift was a red ribbon tied around a pastel drawing of a pink-haired girl with green eyes sitting in the sun. The red ribbon was in her hair holding it out of her pretty eyes. In her selfishness it would be a long time until she finally noticed either of the items. It would be Ino who would take them to a frame shop and get them framed with the ribbon as a bottom border for the portrait. And it would be Ino who would keep them from being destroyed by holding them at her house until such a time as Sakura would ask for them back without intending on destroying them both. After all, Ino remembered the ribbon as well. She remembered how much Sakura had loved it for matching her dress that day and how happy it had made her when Naruto had bought it for her at great personal risk to himself. Though none of them understood why the vendor had chased the boy off they, being the little girls they were, had loved his generosity.

And so the morning of Naruto's death started the saddest time of all for some while for others it was merely a stepping stone to another day. He came into the world in the midst of a hellstorm and went out on the breath of wind. Both went unnoticed in the events of their day.

A month after his passing a green clad jounin came back to town and found himself being handed a package by a very solemn Shikamaru. Not knowing what to think, Lee opened the package and discovered the news. Tears immediately flooded their way down his cheeks as his grief knew no bounds. He grasped a green book in his hands. He stood shaking at the gate, too frozen to move as the memories of his friend and training partner flashed through his mind. Desperately he looked for the one person he knew beyond any shadow of a doubt he could find comfort with as his brain processed his tremendous loss. He and Naruto might have been complete opposites in abilities or potential but they were so very alike in all the ways that counted. Lee's world had just taken a devastating blow.

Everyone in Konoha who had ever felt close to Naruto found one more present on their doorsteps that morning and Shikamaru had just been waiting for Lee to show himself before he disappeared once more for the week. He, Hinata and Iruka had spent the last several months compiling all the memories Naruto would give them into a book about what his life as a Human Sacrifice was like. They had every memory they could pry from him in their notes and the only hard job had been cutting enough of the bad events to get a publisher to publish the book. They'd finally had to drag Jiraiya into it and get him to threaten to pull his best-selling series if they didn't publish it as it was first brought to them, mistakes and all. As soon as they reassured him there were no lies in the book he'd backed their play and his own publishing company had published the book. The copies that had appeared on doorsteps were covered in a thin genjutsu to coerce the recipient to read the first three chapters. All of the authors figured by the time a reader reached chapter three if they weren't hooked they never would be.

Copies of the book showed up mysteriously in the Akatsuki base and at Orochimaru's lair. No one in Konoha knew of the books showing up in those two places but their summons did. All the summons had listened to Kyuubi on this. As soon as Kyuubi had figured out what Naruto's friends were dredging the depths of his mind for, Kyuubi had helped them and then spoke with Shakaku about his plan. He wanted the book delivered to all those who had ever had reason to know of the Kit and his short life. Shakaku agreed to get the job done when it was published. He'd left the how and when to Shakaku and just lent a hand with the practical side of things like blocked memories.

By the end of the week the book, entitled simply "Sacrificed for Everyone", had sold out and was on the waiting list of every book and scroll dealer. Even those who worked solely out of town came looking to replenish their stock. The presses were hard pressed to keep a printing on the shelves as everyone in Sound, Suna, Wave and Konoha each seemed to want their own copy. Even villages that had never heard of Naruto wanted a copy of the book but only as the most popular reading material of the year. Those towns, where he'd left a mark on someone, people were mourning his loss as well as truly coming to know the person they had never allowed themselves to see. Even the base of the greatest crinimals of the known world was locked down in mourning though the leader was really trying his level best to understand just what the hell was wrong with his people. He finally came to the conclusion his people were not actually mourning one of their targets. No instead they were mounring the loss of their goal. By the Nine-tail Jinchuriki dying like that they had no chance of capturing all the tailed beasts. His scream, when he figured that out, could be heard all the way in Konoha. In every village, where a tailed beast was contained, snickers accompanied the sound.


End file.
